[John F. King]

Do any of you send receipts of any king to matching gift companies in addition to what you send the donor?
If so (a) is format the same as for donor receipts? (b) how frequently to you send your "receipt" (with gift? annually?)?

In my nine years of so, we have never sent a receipt for matching gifts directly to the matching gift company. Nor has any matching gift company requested that we send them any kind of receipt. We do list all such companies in all of our summer program booklets but without any amounts shown.

Some newer staff here, however, indicate that some of their former employers DID, in fact, send such receipts.

How do you handle this?

[n1ugu]

In my 20+ years in Development/Philanthropy we have never sent an acknowledgment to the MG company. The newer staff you reference aren't working for their former employers are they??!!!
Barbara

[haferkamp]

I'm afraid I don't understand why anyone would, as a rule, not send tax receipts to companies/corporate foundations for their matching gifts. Unless I misunderstood what you meant by receipt, John?

A matching gift payment may be a Very Very Special type of gift (and a leading cause of my Very Very Special headaches! ), but it's still a gift. Any given MG potentially has an impact on the organization's taxes, the same as any other kind of corporate giving. Do you not send tax receipts to corporations/corporate foundations for their gifts that aren't a match for anything?

As a rule, we send tax receipts to MG companies for every MG payment they send us. Our receipts person does the vast majority of these right along with the rest of the daily receipting, so they take the same format as receipts for individuals or other corporate giving. (I'd bet that consolidated receipts--annual, quarterly, or whatever--would be fine in most cases, if that's how you preferred to do it.)

The only time we don't send a receipt is when the MG company specifically asks for no receipt, which is not terribly common. If they don't say "no receipt, please," then I assume they want one. Sure, it's possible that they don't care, but better safe than sorry. If they don't need the receipt, they'll either let us know, or just chuck receipts as they come--that's their perogative, but I know my department has done right by the IRS.

. . . And, in fact, I've worked with a roughly equal (maybe a bit greater) number of companies who do specify ask for a receipt/tax substantiation/acknowledgement that we received their check. A lot of those even ask me to use a specific medium to receipt them--e.g., do it through their website, or complete, sign, and return the enclosed form. In those cases, I'll take care of it myself, and mark the gift "Receipted" so it doesn't get in our receipts person's way.


Meanwhile, here's what we don't send:

• Match companies do not get a tax receipt for the individual's gift (unless the match form specifically requests proof of the gift--they get a copy of the check, or of our receipt to the individual)
• The individual does not get a tax receipt (or hard credit!) for the match payment--it wasn't their money, therefore it wasn't their gift
• Nobody gets a tax receipt for the MG pledge, obviously, since it's not a gift--though the match expectancy may be mentioned on various communication with the individual

[Elaine Tucker]

We acknowledge Matching gifts to the MG company.... every donor gets an ack/receipt

[Matthew]

ditto. i've always sent acknowledgments for matching gifts to both the company and individual. the individual also gets a separate ack for the gift that spawned the match

[vsiegel]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John F. King

Do any of you send receipts of any king to matching gift companies in addition to what you send the donor?
If so (a) is format the same as for donor receipts? (b) how frequently to you send your "receipt" (with gift? annually?)?

In my nine years of so, we have never sent a receipt for matching gifts directly to the matching gift company. Nor has any matching gift company requested that we send them any kind of receipt. We do list all such companies in all of our summer program booklets but without any amounts shown.

How do you handle this?

We have a well-developed Matching Gifts program, and we have a ton of data on matching gift companies - including information noting that most (easily >90%) don't need or want an acknowledgment of their matching gift. For those who do, we've communicated with them directly and nearly all only want a year-end receipt, which we furnish.

It makes sense; if we had to send a thank you letter to Bank of America for every matching gift they sent us, we'd spend enough money on postage and paper to break our supply budget.

All matching gift companies are listed in our Annual Report.

If you have a small core group of companies to whom you often send matching gift request forms, and "some newer staff," why not charge them with calling the companies, asking for a preference, and going from there? Making friends with the matching gift program officer can only help you.

P.S. I <3 Ravinia!